


The Knights of Carolina

by KonaRaque



Category: The Mist - Stephen King
Genre: South Carolina, Wal-Mart, Young Hero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 17:26:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1519049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KonaRaque/pseuds/KonaRaque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stephen King's The Mist based in South Carolina.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Knights of Carolina

**Author's Note:**

> The notes at the end contain spoilers. Don't look until you have read the story first.

A blood-curdling scream emitted from the fog that hung over Paul as he ran from something he could not quite remember. He stopped to look toward the sound.

"What do you want, you son of a bitch!?"

A rumble from behind him. He turned to see a door. He walked to the door and turned the knob. As the door opened, Paul heard birds chirping and a river or a creek flowing some short distance away. He turned to close the door and it was gone. He walked toward the sound of the water and the sound changed to fire. Paul started running as he grew more and more concerned that his mother might be in the fire. He heard screaming. It got louder as he approached the fire. Louder... louder... louder.

*****

Fifteen miles west of Charleston, South Carolina, a young man awoke from a terrible nightmare. He slowly looks around his room to find that it is still dark outside. It would be dark in his room if not for the nightlight. A small birdhouse shaped nightlight shone brightly across the room from the outlet next to his door.

His mother opened the door and the room was flooded with florescent hallway light.

"Hey, buddy. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, mom. I was just having a bad dream."

"Well, since we're both awake, do you want some breakfast?"

The boy nodded, but remained in bed while his mother stood in the doorway waiting for him to get up. "Do you mind letting me get dressed?"

"I’ll be in the kitchen. What do you want?"

"What do we have?"

" _I…_ will check, and tell you when you get down to the kitchen."

James got out of bed and put on his pants. His mom bothered him a little when she acted like he was still a child. He threw a flannel shirt on over his band tee so that he would have a practical pocket for his notepad and pencil.

James ran down to the kitchen, waking up the dog on the way down. Spider barked a little under his pillow. Spider's spot under the stairs was so loud sometimes that he simply went to sleep on his bed, but under his pillow. James got to the kitchen to see a few almost empty cabinets open. His mom was standing in front of the fridge with the door open towards him.

"What did you find?"

"I found that we need groceries. Wanna head to the Wal-Mart and get it out of the way?"

"It is...4:37 AM. You want to go grocery shopping?"

"They're open 24 hours. What's wrong with grocery shopping in the morning? You think it's weird?"

Resigned to the fact that arguing would get him nowhere, he said alright and went back to his room to put on socks and shoes. He grabbed his wallet, his Nokia, his house keys, and his pocket knife. Running back down the stairs like he forgot Spider was there, he woke the dog again, but this time he apologized with a Milkbone.

James and his mom got into the truck and rolled down the windows. They drove down the dirt road away from their two story trailer and took a left out towards the main road into town.

"Did you talk to Mitch about fixing the AC? It's been really hot the last couple of days."

James's mom seemed to hear him, but she did not answer. "How was your day yesterday?" she asked instead.

Noting the ignored question, "It was good. Lou and I played Mario Party for a few hours and then we got on the computers at the library."

"Book learnin'?" His mom asked with an over-done southern accent. "My son in a _lie-berry_." She intentionally misspoke to bother James. He did not like being called stupid and he did not like his mom acting stupid.

"Yes, because getting on the internet is only for geniuses. We finished there late, so he headed home and I went to Michael Beth's house." As soon as he said it, he wanted it back. It flew out of his mouth and he watched it fly like a moth. The moth fluttered around in front of his face. All of a sudden, it saw a flame and went straight to it. He grabbed at it but to no avail. It flew right into his mother's ear and her eyes widened.

"You went to a girl’s house? Were her parents’ home?" She was keeping an even tone. She was thinking. There was a certain unknown to her voice. Something James had not quite heard before.

"Yes."

"What did you do over there... with a girl?" That tone was confusing him. He thought it sounded angry at first, but then it sounded sad and happy all together.

"We sat in her living room and played Rainbow 6 on her PlayStation 3. Her mom made us ice cream and I left around 11:30. I know it was late, but they said it was okay because they were gonna be off work for a few days." She was gripping the wheel pretty tightly for a few seconds, but then she breathed out slowly. She looked like she was relaxing a bit.

"I think it's time we had a talk." Another thing James wished could be taken back. He studied the door in earnest. His escape would be difficult, but if he just stuck to highways he might get a few rides and maybe a meal. He could get a job at a gas station and he could settle down with a local woman and have a few children. That might be worth the horrible pain of tucking and rolling out of the truck.

The door locked and James noticed a mildly scared look on his mother's face. He must have been too serious in his dream again. "I wasn’t really going to do it, mom. But can we please not do this? I know about this stuff. Enough to know that any talk you give me will either only cover what I already know, or gross me out."

She laughed a little. Then she tousled his hair and said, "Where do you think you came from?"

"For the sake of my sanity, I am a test tube baby made from the genetic material scraped off of yours and dad's elbows. Does that sound about right?"

"Fine. Your dad's sexy elbow."

*****

The rest of the twenty-minute ride was filled with talk of a more scholastic nature. What James was learning on the internet was the main topic. She seemed to be suspicious of him when he said it was all academic. This was mostly true, but he got around the blockers to play a few games as well. They pulled into the parking lot and saw a weird fog rolling in. They grabbed a cart from the coral outside and walked through the front door.

"Did you bring a list, mom?"

"No. I know what we need, what I want, and what I will allow you to get if you ask. That is plenty of information to go shopping with." This has always been her answer. She always says this, but by the end of the trip she always wishes she had brought a list.

James knew what he wanted was a bag of donettes, nacho cheese Doritos, and a twelve pack of Pibb. He knew that this was all he would need to survive a week. But he also knew she would buy more than that, and most of it would be crap she did not want later. They always seemed to shop for groceries when she was hungry.

The cart got about halfway full when an associate asked them, "Is there anything I can help you with?" His accent was so thick that it was obvious he had spent a great deal of his life in the country. "No, thank you," his mom said. "We know where we're heading." The employee nodded with a kind smile and walked off.

"Who needs help with groceries? Who needs someone to help them find something in this part of the store?" James's mother was confused by the associate being over here.

"It's just his job, mom. They force him to be here for eight hours a night and his work gets done in three max. He just has to wander around looking for people to help or something to do." James knew the man. His name was Kendal and he worked in the toy department. He always had to leave there when his work was done because they needed people walking the store looking for shoplifters at this time of night.

Kendal hated his job. He and at least half of the over-night employees here wanted to quit, but there were few job opportunities for people in this area that did not require strong backs and weak minds. These people were all between 22 and 50, and none of them wanted to work somewhere because they needed a small brain to do it.

Suddenly, a scream bellowed through the front doors of the store. An associate ran to see what caused the commotion. She could not see the parking lot through the sliding glass doors. A strange mist had fallen over the entire lot. A gunshot fired through the mist. Another. After two more, a second scream filled the corridor between the two doors from just a few yards away. Quickly, the associate electronically locked the doors.

A manager running up to see what was happening yelled, "What the hell is happening up here?" "There were gunshots and a scream," stuttered the female associate. "I locked the doors because I saw something moving out there. It looked like a giant mosquito." She seemed terrified. She was looking off in the middle of nowhere as she stumbled to one of the benches in front of the registers.

The manager walked the last few feet to the inner door and peered out into the mist. _SMACK!_ A man's body tripped backward and fell onto the outer door frame. As it slid down the glass window, a blood trail followed his head.

"Are you alright, sir?" the manager asked. Another associate, the pharmacist, ran up and looked at the man now lying on the ground. "There’s a lot of blood. We need to get him inside."

"No! There’s something big out there," said the manager.

James, his mother, and the other seven customers in the store had all gathered around the back side of the registers, looking across the front of the store at the glass doors. Two large men in muscle shirts and jeans set their groceries aside and ran to the front doors, pushed past the manager to unlock the door, and dragged the man's body into the front of the store. The manager re-locked the door and started staring out of the glass as he slowly backed further into the store.

"He's dead.” The pharmacist was shaking his head slowly. “There's just too much blood." The man stared at his helpless patient. "Someone go get me a blanket from housewares."

"No! A tarp from sporting goods. The blanket would allow the blood to soak into it and it would still cause a problem." James did not know why he spoke up. Everyone looked at him for a moment before a young woman started running off towards sporting goods.

"Smart kid." A man in his seventies was looking at James's mom with an impressed look. “You must be very proud.”

She looked at her son, who was tending to the pharmacist, and said, “I am.”

*****

“It’s been an hour since we started trying and we still haven’t heard anything.” A young female associate of about 20 years was listening to a radio and all she could get was static. “The television isn’t showing anything and our internet connection on our training computers can’t reach anything outside of the store.”

“Keep trying, Judith. We can’t be stuck without signal forever.” The night manager, Bart, has had heart troubles for years. Seeing a dead body and large moving shapes in this odd mist has not helped the feeling in his chest. He pulled out his bottle of nitroglycerine and tapped out two pills, threw back his head and dropped them both into his mouth. “If you can get a signal from anything,” he swallowed, “I promise you will get a promotion.”

James was sitting with the pharmacist, who had introduced himself as Simon. Simon had calmed down considerably in the two hours since he looked at the dead man in the front of the store.  The mist had begun to look a little clearer since the sun started its rise. It was still too thick to even see the cars at the front of the lot.

“How old are you, son? You think pretty quickly, for a kid.” Simon had been trying to talk about anything but the current situation for a while now.

“I’m fifteen today.” James had not even thought about the fact that it was his birthday today. “I was going to go swimming with a few friends today. I guess those plans are cancelled.”

James’s mom was sitting on the other side of her son on the bench. Her head drooped after his statement. “I’m sorry, son. I just wanted to get some groceries before breakfast.”

“It’s not your fault a mist descended over Wal-Mart.”

The old man who had spoken to James’s mom earlier stepped out of the bathroom and said, “I guess if we are gonna be here a while, we should introduce ourselves. My name is Phil.”

The young woman who retrieved the tarp stood up from the floor. “My name is Drew. I was here for a pedometer.”

The two muscle shirt men have both been standing the entire time. “He’s Tad and I’m Peter. We’re roomies and this punk finished off all the milk.”

“And this idiot thinks that food I bought should be for the apartment.”

James stayed seated as he spoke. “I am James and this is my mom.”

A rather large man, who had been pushing around a cart full of snack cakes and chips, was sitting on a bench alone that he dragged from the other end of the back aisle. “My name is John. I was going to throw a party tonight. I like to prepare early and grocery shopping early in the morning is the best way to beat lines.”

A woman in her fifties, sitting in a chair James brought out for her, looked up from the floor and spoke quietly. “My name is Mattie. I was getting baby food and supplies to take care of my grandson tonight. At least he lives in Nebraska. This mist may span a decent size, but I doubt it reaches that far.”

The last two men were just walking up and, as he heard Mattie finish, they introduced themselves.

“I’m Tom. And this is my brother."

"I'm Jimmy. We just didn’t feel like sleeping. We came up here to walk around and stare at the things we can’t afford.” The men were in their thirties and seemed unshaken by the events unfolding around them.

“Well,” Phil began. “It’s nice to meet you all. Is anyone hungry? The break room back there has tables and I think we should have some breakfast and see how the communications team is getting along.” Everyone agreed and they made their ways to the back room to sit down and eat Poptarts and cereal. Bart and Judith walked over and sat down with the rest of the people.

“Where are the rest of the associates?” asked Peter. “I thought the night shift had about a hundred people up here.” Bart looked at Judith and then back down at his food. Judith spoke up. “The scheduled smoke break was right around the time the gunshots started. Most of the others were out back of the store smoking or hanging out with their friends who smoked. We looked for them out the back window, but we couldn’t see anything in that fog.” Everyone sat silently for a few moments chewing their food.

“I think that we should arm ourselves.” said Peter. “I think we should get to one of the big rigs sitting out behind the store. They aren’t too far away from the back doors if we can defend ourselves that far.”

“I think we need supplies for that kind of trip. We don’t even know how far we will have to go,” James was quick to respond. For the second time today everyone looked at him for a long moment. “What? Why does everyone keep staring at me?”

“You are quite vocal for someone your age. And your ideas aren’t bad. You’re making everyone look bad when you come up with solutions to problems first.” Phil smiled as he spoke. No one seemed to argue with his assessment of their stare.

“Ok,” Simon spoke up. “Well, I think we have to take one of the delivery trucks. One just finished a delivery in the loading dock when everything started. We can get six in the cab and the others can get in the trailer. Then we drive it to the diesel truck that parked at the back of the front lot last night. It was still there when I walked by the front door at 3:30.” This time everyone looked around the table looking for input or objections.

James’s mother was the only to speak up. “I don’t want my son going for the second truck. The first group goes in the cab of truck one and stays there. The second group gets in the trailer and when the truck stops, we get out and make a break for the tanker truck. I drove a rig for a few years, so I will drive the second truck.”

“Not to tell you how to raise your son, but are you sure you want to be separated?” Mattie seemed concerned as a fellow mother would be about the treatment of her child.

“I am a good shot, I can drive a rig, and I can run fast enough to get away from something that might chase me. My son is safer on the short trip from the store to the first truck cab, but I will be needed to take the second rig.” There was a finality and confidence in his mother’s voice that James had only heard a few times before.

“Sounds like we know where he got his analytical skills.” Phil smiled. “Does anyone not know how to shoot?”

Judith raised her hand. “I’m from Florida. I lived in cities for most of my life. I can kick-box, but I don’t think it will help. Giant mosquitos don’t have a face that I am willing to try kicking.”

“We should go look again. I think giant bugs are unlikely to be what’s out there. Maybe wild animals, but I think wild mammals are more likely than wild insects.” Andrew did not like bugs and had been trying to convince Judith that she had not seen what she said she did because he did not want it to be true.

The group of thirteen split into a group of eleven getting guns and knives from sporting goods, and a group of just James with Judith.  They were told to go to school supplies to find backpacks and get travel gear from the travel and sporting goods departments.  They had to fill them with unperishable food, basic amenities, and some navigation tools.

“You’re cute.” Judith smiled as James’s face turned a little red. “Did I embarrass you?”

“No. I just think you’re cute too and you saying it first is nice.”

Judith laughed and kissed him on the cheek. “Call me Jude. It’s what my friends call me.”

“Thanks. Please don’t call me Jimmy or Jim. I have always disliked them.”

“Sure thing, Jim-Bob.” Jude laughed as his faced turned ever redder. “Didn’t think of that one, did you? Too bad, Jim-Bob. That is your name now.”

James accepted his fate by staring at the floor while he shuffled off towards sporting goods to get everyone a compass and some camping MREs. Jude followed, chuckling a bit, with all of the bags on a six wheeled cart. They arrived in sporting goods and the others joined them for the rest of the preparations. Once all of the provisions were collected, the group walked to the loading dock and they split into Team One, those who would get into the first truck cab, and Team Two, those who would travel in the trailer to the tanker and take the second truck.

Peter, Phil, Simon, James, Judith, and Mattie would get into the first cab. While the other loaded up into the trailer, James and his mother stayed back for a minute.

“I love you. You will be fine in the first truck. Don’t worry about me; you know I can take care of myself.” James was still concerned a bit, but he knew she was right. “Be careful, mom. I love you too.”

She tousled his hair and walked across the room to the open trailer door. They shut the door most of the way. They needed it ajar so they could open it from the inside when the truck stopped. James turned away and let a few tears fall when his mom couldn’t see him anymore. Then he wiped his face and walked up to the rest of his group. He and Judith were the only two without guns.

Simon huddled everyone at the door. “On the count of three, I will open this door and we will clear the area around the door. James, Judith, you two stay behind us. When you see us move, stay on our heels. One… Two… THREE!”

*****

A few gunshots… the sound of people moving… more gunshots… more gunshots…..

An engine starting up. Team Two sighed collectively at that sound. Bart picked up the walkie-talkie and pushed the button. “Is everyone ok up there?” A pause for two beats of a heart made everyone in the trailer tense. “Yeah. James stabbed what looked like a two foot tall spider that almost bit him. Mattie and Phil both seem very out of breath, but we are all fine. Let’s get to that tanker.” The trailer felt like it was a million pounds lighter when they heard Simon’s voice.  The truck started moving.

The first bump the truck hit popped off the make-shift lock the group had assembled to keep the back door shut. The minimal light of day shone through the mist and showed Team Two a parking lot filled with giant insects. The first glance the insects saw of people in the trailer caused a small frenzy. Giant bugs started crawling over each other to get to the new menu. Some began fighting and some fell back just to eat the fallen fighters. What looked like a fire-ant jumped into the trailer and Andrew shot it out of the air. The dead one did not seem to deter the living ones even slightly. A swarm of bugs running at the trailer caused the group to open fire into the open air out the back door.

The truck started slowing down and Team Two started moving towards the back of the trailer. They jumped out and cleared the area of anything that was dumb enough to run at them. They closed the back down with the proper lock and started moving towards the second truck. No insects seemed to get near them. They jumped into the cab of the truck.

Team Two started driving towards the highway.

*****

It had been two days since they started driving. The mist hadn’t cleared up any since they began their trek. The groups had to stop to fill up the trucks again. James got out to stretch his legs a bit more than the bedroom in the back of the cab would allow.

“Hey, Jim-Bob.” Jude continued to call him that after leaving the store. “You ok?”

“Yeah. I just don’t see a point to driving. I understand that staying mobile is a good idea, but if we run out of gas further away from supplies because we don’t stop driving, what was the point? If this mist has no edge, then why don’t we find a defensive position and make it as strong as we can?”

“The mist has to have an edge. If it doesn’t, then the world has been consumed by this. I choose to have more faith in humanity than that.”

“We need to get back on the road now! Bugs are here!” James’s mom yelled at the two. She was running back towards the trucks. James turned around in time to see a bug jumping at his mom.

“Duck, mom!” She jumped to the ground and a few gunshots went off into a giant tick-like thing. She stood up and starting running toward her truck again.

A string shot out of the mist right into her ankle. She fell. James stopped running to his truck and turned mid-step. He started running towards his mom. “Mom! I’ve got you! _Hey!_ ”

Jude had him by his shoulders and was pulling him away from his mom. “STOP! She’s gonna die if I don’t save her!” Nothing was stopping his backward movement. He could barely make out his mother say, “Thank you, Judith.” She turned back to face her foe with gun in hand.

“I’ll hold them off of you! Get out of here now!”

The group of twelve got the trucks back on the road and, as they drove away, they saw flashes in the mist and heard gunshots… more gunshots… nothing.

*****

James lay in his bunk and cried for two days. On the second day he sat up on the edge of the bed.

Judith stood up from her seat and walked over to him. “Your mother told me to save you and let her die if it seemed like she had no chance. I promised her.” Judith sat down next to him. She placed her hand on his head and tousled his hair a bit. He threw his arms around her waist and cried. Judith was shocked by his reaction at first. She put her arms around him and said, “She never mentioned her name to me and I don’t remember you saying it either.”

“Joslyn. My mother’s name was Joslyn.”

Phil jumped a bit. “I see something! What is that up there?”

They all looked through the windshield and saw a glow. Simon slowed down the front truck and the glow started getting closer. “Flames!” Simon stopped the truck. The mist started to clear up around the cab. They could make out soldiers. “A flamethrower.” John said, a bit surprised. “They are clearing this mist out with fire.”

As the mist cleared up around them more, they noticed a tank. The twelve climbed down from their trucks and walked over to the tank. A man climbed out of the top hatch, looked at them for a second, and then flicked his head toward the rear of the tank. They walked around the side of the tank and saw a wall off in the distance. “That’s Fort Hood. It’s got strong walls.”

The group started walking back to their trucks.

“Will you stay with me for a while in there? I think I’m going to need someone to talk to.” James sounded a bit choked up as he asked.

“Of course. You didn’t even have to ask. I promised to take care of you if something happened to Joslyn.”

“Thanks.”

The twelve climbed into the cabs of their trucks. “I wonder if my family made it out of Nebraska.” Mattie sounded worried as she sat down on the bottom bunk.

“I hope my friends are alright. The party was for all of the kids in my neighborhood and a few of my buddies from high school. I hope everyone got out ok.” John stared out the window towards the walls of Fort Hood with a look that said he knew his people did not make it out of the city.

“My family has long stopped visiting me,” Phil said in a quiet voice. “I want them to be alright, but I haven’t known where any of them lived in years.”

“I don’t have anyone.” The cab seemed to freeze as Jude spoke. “My father died in a fire trying to save my mom last month. I never had any close relatives in Tallahassee before I moved to Charleston.”

“She was my only family,” James said after a minute. “My dad and my sister died when I was eleven. My mother and I held each other together.”

“She was a selfless and beautiful person,” said Phil. “She would be happy that you made it to safety.”

The cab fell silent. The rest of the short trip was filled with images of soldiers walking up the road to where the group drove in. The soldiers were burning nests and clearing the mist.

“Welcome to Fort Hood,” was the sign on the front gate. Their trip was over and the group was finally saved.

**Author's Note:**

> I lied. Their are no spoilers in this section and there really aren't any notes.


End file.
